It was certainly a weekend to remember here in Sullivan County….we weren’t quite prepared for the intensity of Friday’s blizzard and its 25 inches of snow….still haven’t gotten completely dug out, and just learned that 4 schools are still closed as of this writing, as many roads are closed due to downed trees and power lines…..and there are still 19,000 homes in our county without power. What a contrast from the day before, Thursday March 1, when it was warm enough to sit out on the deck and view the garden that was finally snow-free…and a week of temperatures in the mid to upper 50s!

On Monday morning, March 5, the USGS website showed that the Beaverkill at Cooks Falls was flowing at 803 cubic feet per second, surprising to see with all the snow we received - however that figure was above the average flow for this date of 450 cfs based on 103 years of record-keeping. The minimum flow recorded was 90.0 cfs in 1980, and the maximum was 6490 cfs in 2008.

Water temperatures this past week ranged from a flat 32 degrees F on Friday night during the blizzard to a high of 42 degrees F on that balmy Thursday, March 1.

With another storm predicted for Tuesday night into Wednesday we are bracing for more snow; it won’t be long before both the Willowemoc and Beaverkill will be much higher due to runoff and melting snows….